Gathering Ground
by Lora Kael
Summary: Set before Royal Ranger. A little story about two Rangers, who have both gotten new responsibilities and learning to handle them. Will and Gilan are now senior Rangers and as senior Rangers you can do a lot of things; especially if you are also the Commandant. And Gilan has plans, which he hopes he can rope Will into. Please review after reading.


AN: I wrote this after reading The Red Fox Clan and thinking that there were some holes and missing pieces of information in the book. It's not a spoilery story and can easily be read without having read the book at all. And since I felt there were missing pieces of information (a when and who) I decided to write a little background story to fill in that hole.

* * *

Will rode at a leisurely pace towards the castle. The last time he had been here it had been both a sad and celebratory occasion, as they had met to celebrate Gilan's new office as Ranger Commandant, but had also held a quiet remembrance ceremony of Crowley. Since Rangers didn't stand on ceremony in general both had been simple and quiet affairs, toasting each of them and drinking and eating some good food.

Now Will was coming back to Castle Araluen and it looked the same as always; tall soaring spires with colourful banners, tall and well kept walls, the open parkland surrounding the castle on all sides giving the watchers on the walls a clear view of the area. I bet I could sneak up to the castle without anyone noticing, Will thought to himself. In fact he knew he could, because he had tested that hypothesis before during both day and night. He smiled slightly to himself as he almost casually scanned the area around him before turning his attention back to the castle in front of him. He could, of course, have gone up to it at a canter, but there was no rush and no need to worry the guards; if they saw a Ranger riding towards the castle at speed they would just think something was off. Going at a leisurely pace would set them at ease.

Will turned a more critical eye on the walls as he neared the castle. I bet I could scale those, he thought to himself. The hard part will be to do it without being seen. It was to Will's chagrin that he had never gotten the change to actually try to scale Castle Araluen's walls. Crowley had thought King Duncan might object to it, and he had been right; Will had tried to suggest it might be good to see how difficult such a task would be, but Duncan had waved it away and said that even if someone would be able to sneak up to the walls without being seen, they would never be able to scale the walls without the patrolling guards spotting them. And the look in his eyes had told Will not to test it or him. Of course, Will had been itching to do just that ever since.

Will let go of a soundless sigh. Maybe he could convince Gilan and Evanlyn to let him test it, but he doubted scaling the castle walls was why Gilan had asked him to come. The guards on duty saluted him as he rode onto the drawbridge and Will acknowledged them with a nod of his head. He noted a look of admiration in the younger man's eyes and saw respect in the other's. It still felt weird to Will, but he knew he was one of the most respected Rangers in the kingdom and even a senior Ranger now. He didn't feel _that_ old, but he had long ago realised that Halt hadn't actually been as old as Will had seen him as when he first became his apprentice, and Halt had been a senior Ranger then. With the Rangers seniority was about more than just age and how long you had served; it was also about skills. Naturally both Will and Gilan had tended to think of themselves as young Rangers, but with Gilan's new position it was clear they weren't any more. Will was one of Princess Cassandra's advisors and friends and now he was one of Gilan's, too.

Advisor to Gilan. It was a strange thought. Will had always looked up to Gilan and seen him as an older brother, but now Will was expected to be one of his senior advisors, along with Halt and a handful of other Rangers. And since Halt hadn't joined him on this trip he suspected it would just be Gilan and him this time around.

Arriving at the stables Will stopped Tug with gentle pressure of his knees and swung down to the ground in a fluid movement. A stableboy came running forward to take Tug, but Will waved him away; he would take care of Tug himself.

_Y'know, I do think you might be able to scale those walls._ Tug twisted his head around and shook his mane toward the walls. He looked Will in the eyes. _But you wouldn't have me to keep to safe while you did so._

Will smiled and scratched Tug on the neck. "You're such a worrywart," he said softly, so that none could hear him. He led Tug into the stables and quickly got him unsadled, rubbed down, and made sure he had grain and clean water. Tug turned his head towards him and his nostrils flared as he breathed in. Will smiled and gave Tug the apple he was waiting for. With one final scratch Will finally turned towards the castle proper. He supposed it was time to find out what Gilan had in mind.

**§**

"Will! Good. You're here." Gilan sounded both relieved and happy to see him and Will grinned. The office was full of stacks of paper and Gilan's hair was sticking out in ways that suggested he had run his hands though it repeatedly. Will suddenly felt very glad he wasn't the one, who had been nominated as commandant and he made a silent vow to decline should anyone ever do just that.

"Hi, Gilan," Will greeted him, and they met in a backslapping embrace. "You look tired," he added as he drew back again.

Gilan sighed. "It's not tiredness as much as frustration at how much work it really is to run the Ranger Corps and keep track of what happens in the kingdom. Just the monthly reports alone take hours upon hours to go through. By the time I'm done with them it seems the next batch arrives."

Will patted him sympathetically on the back. Gilan had only been on the job for a few months, but he was still learning how to best organise his way out of the paperwork.

"Well, better you than me," Will said with a grin.

Gilan gave him a suffering look and Will laughed. "It's your own fault; you did say yes to this, Gilan."

"I know," Gilan replied. "Still, I wouldn't mind to have someone here to help me."

Will held up his hands. "If you're asking me to leave Redmont to sit in an office then the answer is no. I have no aspirations to become either Commandant or the Commandant's assistant."

Gilan shrugged. "Oh well. It was worth a shot."

The grin returned to Will's face. "It was optimistic even for a Ranger," he replied.

Gilan smiled in return and they sat down at Gilan's large work desk; it had stacks of paper on each side, but the space in the middle was kept clear so Gilan could focus on just a single paper at a time.

"So, what's the reason for asking me to come here?" Will asked.

Gilan nodded in appreciation of Will's direct question. Ranger's tended to prefer plain speak, at least they did to one another.

"I wanted to discuss a few matters with you and hear your thoughts on them. Nothing that threatens Araluen, but still things we might improve upon."

Will nodded. He had wondered the whole trip and it seemed now that this was a small meeting just to settle them both in; Gilan as Commandant, Will as advisor. They were both new to the jobs, and unlike Gilan's other senior Rangers and advisors, Will hadn't been an advisor to anyone before, at least not officially so.

"All right. Anything in particular you want to start with?"

Gilan nodded. "As a matter of fact, there is. You know it's soon time for the Gathering again."

Will nodded in reply. The Gathering was held every year, but the time varied to make it more difficult for troublemakers to figure out when the Rangers would be away from their fiefs. "You've got something in mind for this year?"

"Not any big things," Gilan replied. "But I do have some thoughts regarding the future of the Gathering and I wanted to hear your opinion on them."

"All right; what do you got in mind?"

Gilan took a deep breath then plunged in. "I want to move the Gathering Ground," he said.

Will was taken aback. The Gathering Ground hadn't been moved in all the years he had been a Ranger and its location was kept a strict secret. "Why?" he asked simply.

"Because the longer it stays in the same location, the greater the risk that someone will figure out its place and that could be trouble for us."

Will nodded thoughtfully. "So you want to find a new location."

But Gilan shook his head. "Not a new location. New locations," he said, stressing the last syllable. "I want us to scout the kingdom for as many possible locations as we can. They have to be removed from villages and roads enough that people won't happen upon them while we are there, but they should be all over the country."

Will whistled softly. "You want to keep the Gathering moving every year."

"I want to keep the Gathering moving every year," Gilan confirmed. "It will be far safer for us the fewer who knows where it is, and keeping it moving will mean that nobody will know where we are during the Gathering. And we won't even have to blindfold people any more for the last evening feast since we will be leaving early next morning any way."

Will considered this. He could see the advantages to Gilan's proposal, although he wasn't quite sure he agreed with the final decision; letting people know the location on the last evening would mean they wouldn't be able to reuse the location again in a generation or so, because people would otherwise remember it. He looked at Gilan. "And you have considered that by letting people know of the location on the last evening we won't be able to return and reuse that location until a generation has passed by?"

Gilan frowned. "True. But I'm not planning on reusing the locations."

"But eventually we will," Will replied. "We won't be able to keep on finding remote, quiet locations big enough to hide a camp of fifty plus Rangers and their apprentices and horses forever. So at some point we _will_ need to start using a former location again."

Gilan nodded. It was a good point and he was happy that Will made it rather than objecting to the idea of moving around. It was a good sign. "So we will need to scout the kingdom and make sure we can find enough locations to do just that," Gilan replied.

"Why not just continue with the blindfolds?"

"Because it takes a lot to do that kind of security, leading people in and out. Without it we can more easily bring in family and friends for graduation ceremonies and catering for the feast, not to mention clear out the next day."

Will nodded. It was a fair point and he had been on guide duty before; not really what any Ranger wanted to be doing when there was goodbyes to be said. "So we are back to whether or not we can find enough suitable locations to keep moving without reusing a location in at least a generation."

"Yes." Gilan gave a single nod in confirmation.

"All right, I can get behind that plan. But what got you to think of it in the first place?" Will asked curiously.

"Crowley. And you."

Will raised an eyebrow.

"Remember how you once remarked on Crowley's permanent hiding place making him predictable?" When Will nodded, Gilan continued. "Well, I gave it some thought and realised you were right. Even if most hadn't figured out where it was, just a few people knowing would render it fairly useless. Of course, Crowley was only using it to keep watch of Rangers as they came to the Gathering Ground, but imagine if that had been a few people outside the Corps knowing the exact location of the Gathering Ground. The truth is we've mostly been relying on a mixture of loyalty, honesty, and changing times to keep the Gathering secret."

Will frowned in thought. There was some truth to that. Even blindfolded people still knew which part of the kingdom they were in, which could help them narrow down the area to search if they wanted to. They did rely a lot on the people brought in being honest and loyal people, who wouldn't sell off information about the Rangers. But all it would take would be one person sharing his information with the wrong people and then there might be trouble. Even though you had to be suicidal to attack fifty Rangers all at once that didn't mean nobody would do it. Morgarath had tried to eradicate the Rangers; someone else might come along to try the same again.

"So how do we find these new locations?" Will asked.

Gilan relaxed a little in his chair, glad that Will went along with it so easily. Hopefully that meant the others wouldn't sound any protests either. "We give every Ranger the job of scouting their fief and suggesting different locations we might be able to use. The smaller fiefs may not have more than one or even no good places, but the larger fiefs should have several possible locations. Hopefully we'll be able to get at least thirty locations to choose from when all the reports are in."

"And then the location for each year will be chosen at random?"

Gilan nodded. "Yes. Just like we keep an element of randomness in the time, we'll do so with the location."

Will smiled. "Sounds good to me. Is it your plan to spring this on the others during the Gathering?"

Gilan grinned. "Yes. I thought it would be easiest to give the job of scouting to everybody at once. Plus we'll need time to gather the reports and prepare for moving. The first year will probably be the hardest."

"Then you'll have to share your plan with the others soon." Gilan knew Will was taking about the other senior Rangers, who also acted as advisors.

"Of course. You were my test-Ranger to see if the idea was viable or would be rejected."

Will raised an eyebrow again. "Test-Ranger? That's something new you've started, too?"

"Trying it out," Gilan said with a grin. "Seems to be working out fine so far."

Will shook his head. "Just don't ever call me 'test-Ranger' in front of anyone and I won't complain."

"Deal."

"Any loose ends we need to discuss on this matter?" Will asked.

Gilan shook his head. "Not right now. There will be something later, and certainly when we get the reports on possible new locations, but for now I think that was it."

"Great. Then let's get on to the next, so we can get out of this office."

Gilan couldn't help a grin at Will's comment. Will had never been much of an indoor type, in fact Rangers in general weren't, but Will and Halt both seemed to take that to the extreme. And Gilan would be happy to get out of the office for a while himself.

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Gilan called.

A young servant boy came in, looking a bit wide eyed at being in the presence of the two Rangers. He had a tray in his hands.

"Um, I was told to bring you coffee, sir Ranger."

Gilan saw Will's face freeze in a mask of neutrality and knew he was close to start laughing.

Gilan waved the boy forward. "Just put it on the table here. And no need to call me 'sir'; I'm not a knight, I'm a Ranger. We don't use extra titles."

The boy looked a bit nervous at being corrected although Gilan's voice hadn't been unkind or harsh. "Um, alright, si– er, Ranger. Here's your coffee, s– Ranger." The boy cast a glance at Will's impassive mask as he put down his tray, then scurried off before he could accidentally address the Ranger Commandant the wrong way again.

The moment the door had closed Will burst out laughing. "'Sir Ranger?' Really? And here I thought Crowley would have made sure such nonsense was left long ago."

Gilan scowled at him and in retaliation poured himself a mug first.

"So why does the boy keep on calling you 'sir', Gilan?" Will asked almost innocently. Gilan didn't answer. "Am I to guess?" Will put on a dramatic tone. "You wound me. I thought we were friends."

Gilan finally had enough of Will's teasing. "It's the sword," he said a bit testily. "The younger boys think of it as the weapon of a knight, so because I carry one they keep on addressing me as 'sir'."

"But because you're clearly also a Ranger, they call you 'sir Ranger'?" Will asked.

"Yes."

Will reached out and patted his friend on the shoulder. "I think you might be fighting a losing battle here, Gilan. And face it; you were trained as a knight, too, so they aren't even completely wrong."

Gilan sighed. "I know. But I still wish they would stop calling me 'sir Ranger'. I'm a Ranger, so that's what I should be called, nothing else."

Will looked thoughtful. "I will have to disagree with you here." Gilan raised an eyebrow. "You are also the Commandant, so that is also what you should be called."

Gilan sighed again, but this time because he realised Will was right and he had temporarily forgotten his own position and the extra title that came with it.

"Right. Anyway, it's not a big thing, and we might as well get on with it. I'd like to go out for some shooting practice later, and maybe a little knife fight, too."

Will grinned at the prospect of training with Gilan, and settled in with his mug in one hand. He was ready to listen to and discuss quite a few things if it meant the two of them would later have some Ranger style fun.


End file.
